(Paris soccer fans sign their national anthem as they exit the Stade de France in an orderly manner after the attacks of Friday night).
The New York Times is reporting that the French Police are looking for an eighth murderer who may have escaped. Seven are dead, either by their own hands or in a shoot-out with police.
Eight young men are responsible for the slaughter, though of course they were enabled by others. The question this morning is “what is next.” I don’t have any policy recommendations, not that the National Security Council would listen anyway. French President Hollande is going to have to act- and what his advisers tell him to do will be interesting to see as it unfolds.
The larger problem is one common across the European Union- once into the zone, migrants face no border control, and France has already demonstrated what happens when un-assimilated populations ghettoize and grievance against their benefactors festers.
I don’t know if this latest horror- there are now so many of them- will change the public policies that have guided immigration. In Sweden, for example, the rate of rape, once as low as one would expect, now is exceeded only by that of the kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa.
But remember, in the relativist world, all cultures are equal and good, and it is forbidden to comment on the obviously ridiculous and violent situation that results.
The barbarians of ISIS have already demonstrated that they are opportunists, and have stated that American Blood tastes the sweetest. So, as we wait for the next shoe to drop, it is worth taking a look at how the French people took the news. The biggest crowd was at the Stade de France, with nearly 80,000 fans watching a football match against Germany. You have probably seen the images from the stadium as the bombs near the entrances went off. It was surreal, as the action on the field continued (France won, 2-nil) and the news of the bombings and shootings trickled in via thousands of mobile devices.
French President Francois Hollande left the stadium, and the facility went into lock-down, a gigantic exercise of ‘shelter in place.’
The order to evacuate was given around midnight, and the fans dispersed from the exit tunnels in an orderly manner. I have seen the tape of one tunnel, in which the Tricolour was waved and the crowd began spontaneously to sing the Marseillaise, the French National Anthem. It is pretty moving.
Like everything else these days, the lyrics to the anthem have been under attack for failing to account for modern sensibilities. Like the Star Spangled Banner, the stanzas are said to reflect a martial spirit that is not appropriate to the Europe of today. True enough, though the times may have come around on that topic.
The words and music to the Marseillaise were written by a fellow named Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, then a French army officer. He originally called it the ‘Chant de guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin’ (‘War Song for the Army of the Rhine’). First sung in April 1792, it reached the bustling Mediterranean port of Marseille with the troops three months later. It’s rousing theme was an immediate success, and it was a battalion from that city sung the anthem in Paris later that year, and the association with that unit caused it to be re-named the “Marseillaise.”
It is a pretty brutal song, urging the French to fight against the Prussian invasion that followed the revolution, and was subsequently banned under Napoleon and for much of the 19th century. It was only selected as the national anthem in the aftermath of the next humiliating defeat in the he Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71.
It is an undeniably stirring song, but if you do not speak French, it can be stirring without being a call to action. That is what it is.
Remember the scene from the magnificent film “Casablanca?” Rick’s Café Americain is the hottest ticket in town, and the occupying German officers are gathered at a table, and want to ensure that the Colonists know who their new masters are. Nazi Colonel Strasser leads what becomes a humiliating defeat in a battle of the anthems. Originally, the script called for the Germans to sing the iconic Nazi Party song, the “Horst Wessel Lied,” but in the Hollywood of 1941, that song was still under international copyright. Warner Brothers instead substituted “Die Wacht am Rhein” (The Watch on the Rhine).
In response, Resistance leader Lazlo steps up to the orchestra, and directs the musicians to strike up the Marseillaise. The crowd joins in as the strains of the anthem drown out the Nazis. It is a nice piece of theater, though of course it results in Rick having his place shut down, and one of the great lines in movie history, one that is particularly appropriate to Washington DC in our times.
In French, the melody is soaring, but the words may give us an indication of what President Hollonde may have to do. In its native tongue, the anthem starts out like this:
Allons enfants de la Patrie
Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L’étendard sanglant est levé
Entendez-vous dans nos campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras.
Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes!
Aux armes citoyens
Formez vos bataillons
Marchons, marchons
Qu’un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons
Which to we Americans, who can barely speak our own language, is quite impenetrable. So here is the whole thing in English, just to get some context on what the French were singing in solidarity:
Arise children of the fatherland
The day of glory has arrived
Against us tyranny’s
Bloody standard is raised
Listen to the sound in the fields
The howling of these fearsome soldiers
They are coming into our midst
To cut the throats of your sons and consorts
To arms citizens
Form you battalions
March, march
Let impure blood
Water our furrows
What do they want this horde of slaves
Of traitors and conspiratorial kings?
For whom these vile chains
These long-prepared irons?
Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage
What methods must be taken?
It is we they dare plan
To return to the old slavery!
What! These foreign cohorts!
They would make laws in our courts!
What! These mercenary phalanxes
Would cut down our warrior sons
Good Lord! By chained hands
Our brow would yield under the yoke
The vile despots would have themselves be
The masters of destiny
Tremble, tyrants and traitors
The shame of all good men
Tremble! Your parricidal schemes
Will receive their just reward
Against you we are all soldiers
If they fall, our young heroes
France will bear new ones
Ready to join the fight against you
Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors
Bear or hold back your blows
Spare these sad victims
Who with regret are taking up arms against us
But not these bloody despots
These accomplices of Bouillz
All these tigers who pitilessly
Are ripping open their mothers’ breasts
We shall enter into the pit
When our elders will no longer be there
There we shall find their ashes
And the mark of their virtues
We are much less jealous of surviving them
Than of sharing their coffins
We shall have the sublime pride
Of avenging or joining them
Sacred Love for the Fatherland
Lead and support our avenging arms
Liberty, cherished liberty
Join the struggle with your defenders
Under our flags, let victory
Hasten to you virile force
So that in death your enemies
See your triumph and our glory!
I have no idea what is going to come next. Secretary Kerry seems to think that a cease-fire in Syria is just the ticket, as if that were possible. I am not sure that is what the French are thinking. I guess we will find out in due time, won’t we?
Copyright 2015 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303